COAST GUARD SPARS

Year Published: 1942

Format: 16mm

Description: SPARS was the United States Coast Guard Women's Reserve, created 23 November 1942 with the signing of Public Law 773 by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The name is a contraction of the Coast Guard motto: Semper Paratus and its English translation Always Ready. The name also refers to a spar in nautical usage. Like the other women's reserves such as the Women's Army Corps and the WAVES, it was created to free men from stateside service in order to fight overseas. Its first director was Captain Dorothy C. Stratton, and she is credited with creating the name for the organization. The Coast Guard closely followed the Navy WAVES model, with officer training at the Coast Guard Academy. Their goal was 1000 officers and 10,000 enlisted. 1,914 women were trained in boot camp at Hunter College's Bronx campus. The cutter USCGC Spar (WLB-206) is named after the SPARS.

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Transcription

[Music] one of the oldest of our fighting forces with the tradition of courage second-to-none met the United States Coast Guard carries the war to the axis on the seven seas but nowhere do men of the Coast Guard wage more bitter and effective warfare and in the sub infested waters of the Atlantic ceilings the u-boats must be battle to the death the stuff of production must go through for upon the Battle of the Atlantic depends the success of assaults in the making the success of invasions to come the men of the Coast Guard do their job and do it well yes the spars have a job to do too perhaps our jobs are not for a moment so exciting ascending a depth charge over a cutter side or seeing a tell-tale oil slick rise from a blasted sub but they are vital jobs which must be done vital jobs done by women so that men may fight that's why you join the spar basic training doesn't take long only a month and your pay begins at once we learn to take orders and to carry them out you require new vigor new confidence you learn to march with others and to work with others and you learn to and to do your best is the proud tradition of a Coast Guard you get good food plenty of it and boy how you stow it away in school you learn the lore of ships and aircraft language of the sea then almost before you know it you pass in final review no longer boot a full-fledged spar a man can go to see you take over his job with the same rating same pay the same privileges and the same responsibilities these are the jobs which must be done by sparks movement of ships and men and trusted - paper is also entrusted to you there are many jobs the Coast Guard needs you for each one helps to win this war and then to the skills learned today will mean better jobs tomorrow you won't get to be an admiral but you may be the Admirals secretary if you are a laboratory technician dental hygienist a dietitian an engineer or a draftsman the spars need your knowledge your skill this chemistry major found her birth all right here to Spartak's over and one more pharmacist mate can go to see you may be assigned to duty at one of many busy ports or stations it may be Boston or New York Miami or New Orleans San Francisco or CF or even at Coast Guard headquarters in Washington as men go to battles FAR's take increasingly important assignments radio technicians are being trained to maintain the coast guards contact between ship and Shore if you want to hear history in the making you couldn't pick a better spot out of this room go the commands to the men on the ships to the men in the plane who carry out the missions which help defeat our enemies the mission will be accomplished because the Coast Guard is always ready more sparse mean more men on ships more men on ships mean more missions accomplished join the spars and release a man foreseen [Music]


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